What are the advantages of rail mounted mantrips over rubber tired ones?

Also do you agree that in the future rail mounted mantrips in coal mines will be deseal powered, why not battery/ trolley?

What are the advantages of track mounted equipment over rubber tyred besides that it's cooler?

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I think battery will still be the most prominant in the mining industry. It does not require a permit like diesel. Diesel is on the rise. They are trying to phase out trolley. There are alot of issues with trolley.

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Yuck keep that stinky diesel outa here!

Man, theres no way I'd wanna work all day smelling "scrubbed" diesel fumes from stupid mantrips on the intake. Battery or trolly is the way to go in my book!

Rail haulage doesn't make a muddy mess... thats a huge advantage. I've worked around/with both and the slop that the rubber tire machines / mantrips make can be a nighttimemare. Plus, you can load way more (weight wise) on a railcar than a rubber powered thing usually. Rubber tired is cool in that you can go wherever you want in the mine pretty much with it and at any time you want... theres no need for a dispatch.. but when it comes to hauling things like supplies underground, rails the ticket.

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This ain't longwall... this is long hole!

Electric will remain and should become more popular. With the electric automobile kick, energy-efficient motors and high-tech batteries have been developed in the past few years along with the control electronics and regenerative capabilities. If battery equipped mantrip cars worked for this industry 60+ years ago then today they should dominate. I feel the problem might be a lack of manufactures willing to do the R&D and marketing of such vehicles when the market is so small and shrinking.
I do agree with Banks, rail is where it is for heavy loads but the tire is gaining momentum. (pun intended)

Rail is definitely the coolest way to go but it has many drawbacks. One of the most prominent of these drawbacks is the fact that to efficiently use rail for haulage etc, you must have a well graded, reasonably flat ore body, (not a problem in most bitty mines to my knowledge). Rail equipment is crap on grades of any pitch above 4%, and that's being generous, steel wheels on wet steel rails just can't get the same traction as rubber on rock.

That doesn't really apply to mantrips as they are pretty light in comparison to a loaded ore trip.

If the orebody has any serious pitch to it (like anty coal) then rubber tired equipment makes it much less of a headache to develop and exploit. This is ofcourse assuming that the orebody is not tabular in nature (like an anty mine) and this is beyond the scope of this discussion. Sorry, almost went on a tangent there.

In anty coal the pitch is generally so steep from what I've seen, that rail is perfect for it because you can run along the strike of the seam and just use gravity to load cars at certain points. Running a truck in that kind of environment means blasting out way more rock than you have to. Unless you have a really thick seam. Less rock=less dilution=good.

Rail equipment can haul more in one setting than rubber tired equipment any day, and with maintenance, you have relatively few motors to work on as opposed to a motor on every piece of equipment. Railcars are also easier to maintain than a fleet of trucks I'd imagine, note that I didn't say cheaper though, lol! I have no idea what the cost differences are to maintain a rail fleet compared to a truck fleet.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a surge in battery equipment in coal back east but diesel is the standard out here in the west, be it coal or hard rock.

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Erik Novoa
Miner/ Railroader